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FTC Disclosure

The nation’s largest privately owned coal company, Murray Energy, just filed a lawsuit against the Last Week Tonight host over the show’s recent segment. Oliver had criticized the company’s CEO, Robert Murray, for actingcarelessly toward miners’ safety.

Murray Energy’s complaint stated that the segment was a “meticulously planned attempt to assassinate the character and reputation” of Murray by broadcasting “false, injurious, and defamatory comments.”

Oliver shouldn’t be too concerned, according to Ken White, a First Amendment litigator at Los Angeles firm, who told the Daily Beast that the complaint was “frivolous and vexatious.”

The lawsuit is hardly a shocking development. Before the show aired, Oliver received a cease-and-desist letter from the company. He noted that Murray has a history of filing defamation suits against news outlets (most recently, the New York Times).

Oliver said in the episode, “I know that you are probably going to sue me, but you know what, I stand by everything I said.”

In seemingly choreographed lockstep with President Trump’s revelation that the U.S. would exit the Paris Agreement, the Environmental Protection Agency announced on Thursday a buyout program to begin the process of cutting its staffing levels.

According to an internal memo from Acting Deputy Administrator Mike Flynn (not that Mike Flynn), the EPA’s offer encourages “voluntary separations” that would cause “minimal disruption to the workforce.”

The workforce was plenty disrupted, however, by the budget proffered earlier this year by the Trump administration. It basically suggests taking a blowtorch to the agency — proposing a 31 percent budget cut and the elimination of 3,200 out of the EPA’s 15,000 jobs.

The proposed buyout will cost $12 million, and will first have to be approved by the Office of Management and Budget. The agency hopes to complete the cuts by September.

If approved, the buyouts may be popular. After Trump was elected, some EPA career staff cried, others set up rogue Twitter accounts, some quit, and others just waited anxiously for what would come next. Now we know: The newly arrived EPA honchos are sharpening their knives.

In seemingly choreographed lockstep with President Trump’s revelation that the U.S. would exit the Paris Agreement, the Environmental Protection Agency announced on Thursday a buyout program to begin the process of cutting its staffing levels.

According to an internal memo from Acting Deputy Administrator Mike Flynn (not that Mike Flynn), the EPA’s offer encourages “voluntary separations” that would cause “minimal disruption to the workforce.”

The workforce was plenty disrupted, however, by the budget proffered earlier this year by the Trump administration. It basically suggests taking a blowtorch to the agency — proposing a 31 percent budget cut and the elimination of 3,200 out of the EPA’s 15,000 jobs.

The proposed buyout will cost $12 million, and will first have to be approved by the Office of Management and Budget. The agency hopes to complete the cuts by September.

If approved, the buyouts may be popular. After Trump was elected, some EPA career staff cried, others set up rogue Twitter accounts, some quit, and others just waited anxiously for what would come next. Now we know: The newly arrived EPA honchos are sharpening their knives.

It’s been a whirlwind day for the news. 1. The Dakota Access pipeline is already leaking. So much for American steel. More here. 2. Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe says there will be ‘no effort to impede’ investigation into Russian election meddling. More here. 3 […]

The story of mass transit on the east side of Manhattan is a sad saga of government promises and failures. The old elevated lines on Second and Third Avenues were knocked down, but never replaced by the promised subway line. As the city revived in the 21st century, the Lexington line was the only subway serving the east side and it became dangerously crowded during rush hours. On New Year’s Day 2017, the impossible took place and the first phase of a new Second Avenue subway line was finally opened. This PR video tells the story. The MTA website describes the new line’s route and features. In this season of doubt about government and the possibilities of acting as a community, we see living proof of our ability to work together and build. A few months ago the MTA was hedging on meeting the deadline of opening the new line by January 1, and Governor Cuomo made it his personal mission to lead the project to completion. MTA management, unions, and contractors all became aware that this project had special meaning to the Governor, and Cuomo demonstrated what visible, positive public leadership could accomplish […]

BOOKS

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Bestselling author Kimberly Belle is back with a “domestic thriller [that] will keep you reading into the wee hours of the night.” — Redbook "Fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train will eat up Kimberly Belle's latest novel."—Bookreporter.com Everyone has secrets Iris and Will have been married for seven years, and life […]

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Liam Parker crash landed into Laurie’s life when everything else was crumbling all around her. Her marriage and career were in pieces and her mind was left spinning. But one touch from Liam, and Laurie could forget everything else around her. She thought she had it all figured out. As Laurie lost herself in Liam’s […]

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "A driving, unputdownable courtroom drama/murder mystery that is also a literary treasure . . . Put this one on your don't-miss list." -Stephen King, #1 bestselling author of Sleeping Beauties More than twenty years after Rusty Sabich and Tommy Molto went head-to-head in the shattering murder trial […]

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller! For readers of Gillian Flynn and Tana French comes one of the decade’s most anticipated debuts, to be published in thirty-six languages around the world and already in development as a major film from Fox: a twisty, powerful Hitchcockian thriller about an agoraphobic woman who believes she witnessed a […]

The game started with a murder. Now, it's Eve Dallas's move. It is the most puzzling case Eve Dallas has ever faced: the founder of the computer gaming giant U-Play is found decapitated in his locked, private playroom. And now Eve and her team are about to enter the next level of police work, in […]

Her eyes are wide open. Her lips parted as if to speak. Her dead body frozen in the ice. She is not the only one. When a young boy discovers the body of a woman beneath a thick sheet of ice in a South London park, Detective Erika Foster is called in to lead the […]